Blind Loyalty
by Hypocritical-Hime
Summary: Because despite how much we hate our siblings, we still love them to death. Thus, we'll do anything for them, even it breaks every rule in the book.


_**Disclaimer: **__Jiraiya's STILL not back yet._

_**Pairings: **__HiashiTsume (implied). HiashiHizashi (siblings)_

_**Summary Notes: **__It's time for some angsty brother-loving amongst my fray of HiashiTsumeOlderGeneration goodness!_

Hizashi has never been a stupid man.

Oh, bitter, yes. Blinded by prejudice, maybe. Anyone would be, if they had lived through what he suffered. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Fate is a cruel mistress, and though he struggles to break free of it, the Cursed Seal on his forehead is a very grim reminder of the fact that only in death, will he ever truly escape.

But he has never been stupid. And though blinded by hatred for his own clan, he has never been truly blind to the rest of the world. The Hyuuga are supposed to be all-seeing, after all, and he is no exception. He sees things others wouldn't, little things. Things they do not expect him to notice.

Above all, he sees his brother.

Of course he _sees_ Hiashi. Hiashi is his twin, older than him by mere minutes, and heir to the clan. Hiashi's status as the clan heir is the reason why Hizashi is cursed by the Seal, sworn to protect the main family at an age where he could barely speak full sentences without hiding behind his brother shyly, let alone die for him.

Hiashi is everything a leader of the Hyuuga Clan should be. Aloof, cold, calm and rational; he lets nothing break his reserved mask, not outwardly, anyway. Certainly not where others can see.

Hizashi knows better, though. Despite his loathing for what has happened to him, he has seen Hiashi in all his masks. He has seen his brother curse and fume, glare and smile. He has even seen him laugh and cry.

Above all, he has seen Hiashi love and desire.

Hizashi is not blind to his brother, not like the others. From the moment they discovered girls did not have cooties, he has paid attention to the world of females around him, in particular, one Inuzuka Tsume. Not because she interested him in any particular way (apart from the fact that she was terribly easy to befriend, sharing his own innate desire for freedom and mischief), though.

No, he paid attention to Inuzuka Tsume because Hiashi did.

Hiashi has always been terribly good at hiding what he thinks and feels, but not from Hizashi. Hizashi observes, and from that, he gleans.

He listened when Hiashi griped about his genin team, and that blasted Inuzuka and her complete lack of propriety and sanity.

He watched with vague amusement as Hiashi paced their room the day they were both made chuunin, complaining about that wretched dog-girl even as he grudgingly admitted she had put up an impressive show of tactics in her match, surprising even him. And not a few days later, he watched again at the Harvest Moon Festival, and did not miss the way his brother's large, pale eyes narrowed a little and followed the rambunctious - but very pretty looking - Tsume as she teased and flirted with her new chuunin comrades, or giggled her way around the dance square with her best friend, Yoshino.

He observed from a distance the day they brought Tsume in after their first jonin mission, bloodied and beaten, with his brother looking more frantic than he'd ever been in his entire life, refusing to let them seperate him from her until Shibi threatened to forcibly remove Hiashi with his bugs.

And though he didn't see what had actually happened, he remembers vividly the day he walked into his brother's hospital room to find Tsume hastily adjusting he jacket, and more so, the way his brother actually _blushed _ever so slightly when Hizashi raised an eyebrow at him, allowing a little smirk to appear on his lips.

Despite all of this, though, Hizashi never told anyone what he suspected Hiashi was up to. A part of him sincerely questioned himself as to why he didn't; his brother was the catalyst behind much of his suffering, after all, and to deprive him of something that clearly made him happy in Hizashi's eyes would be spiteful but sweet revenge indeed.

And yet he didn't.

Because somewhere in that bitterness, Hizashi still loved his brother. Still adored the ground he walked on. Somewhere in his heart, he was still that shy five year old who had followed Hiashi's shadow, and hidden behind him when they were forced to attend large gatherings of strangers (or cantakerous Hyuuga elders).

And because of that small part of him, he'd been happy that in some small way, no matter how wrong it was for the Hyuuga heir, that Hiashi was happy. It wasn't obvious, but Hizashi saw it in the tiny smiles on his brother's face that appeared out of nowhere, the way he seemed to walk around with more confidence in his step, and of course, the way his eyes softened just a smidgeon the moment they got within twenty feet of Tsume.

Oh yeah, and the fact that Hiashi growled much like his lover did, every time she tackled Hizashi and wrestled with him, and Hizashi obliged by flirting and playing in response. But he was an irritating twin brother, so that was expected.

In short, Hizashi was possibly the only one that knew his cool, collected brother was caught in that dreaded web starting with "L". And because his brother was happy, in all that youthful idiocy, Hizashi was happy. 

But because of that youthful idiocy, the world came crashing down on them harder than they expected, and the day Hiashi was forced to marry one of their own clanswomen, Hizashi's heart broke for him. It broke because he knew his brother's would not, could not be allowed to, and it broke for Tsume, for Hizashi had heard the last of that screaming match, the night Hiashi had been forced to tell Tsume of what was about to occur.

Hizashi remembers that night so vividly. Because it is the first night since they'd been children that he'd ever observed Hiashi in tears. Not heaving sobs, not like the broken sounds coming from Tsume when she fled from the room, but the glistening in Hiashi's eyes even as he tried to suppress it, the way he actually allowed himself to be taken into his twin's arms and held in silent understanding against his shoulder, spoke volumes.

Fate was a cruel mistress, and just as they'd learnt how to kill in the Academy, they'd learnt that, too.

And because of that, Hizashi had not said a word when he'd begun to observe things again, when he'd noticed Hiashi disappearing in the night and returned smelling of a certain female and that earthier smell of lovemaking, not even when Hiashi became Lord Hyuuga, not even when little Hinata had been born. On that at least, he could not fault Hiashi, for despite his infidelity, he still supported his fragile wife, and cared for his daughter.

Hizashi had never been a stupid, blind or ignorant man. But he had never been a liar or a spiteful man, despite his hatred for the Hyuuga Clan. For no matter how much he hated, that hate was met in fierceness only by his love for Hiashi.

And because of that, Hizashi turned a blind eye until the day he died. For his brother's sake.


End file.
